Thesis: Recent development in the school funding and eliminating the segregations in schools helps in improving the quality of education.
Education has always been one of the services that the state recognizes to have top priority in terms of budget. It is quite unfortunate why the state of Kansas chose to cut its education budget, violating the state Constitution, as recently ruled by the Kansas Supreme Court. Education advocates, who have been tirelessly fighting for suitable education funding for over a decade now, favor this court ruling.
Last 2009, at the start of the economic recession, the state of Kansas implemented cuts to education budget. The recession had been looked at as the reason of the state to reduce state payments (local property taxes), which school funding heavily rely on. The negative effect of this is disparity between districts of varied economic classes. The lower the collected taxes (most especially in poor districts); the lesser funding there is for public schools and its students. The Supreme Court further said that the school districts were able to prove that decreased school funding negatively affected their constitutional duty to administer and develop the public school system, thus affecting the quality of education.
Another issue affecting quality of education is segregation in schools. The current administration’s policy for the proliferation of charter schools is believed to result to greater segregation in schools in terms of economic status, color of the skin and ethnicity. This, in turn, affects the quality of education based on the program offered per school. The segregation gives way to a selective learning process that contradicts the objective of schools to provide for well-rounded development programs for its students. Segregation also increases the difference between socio-economic classes. There are schools that accept according to a student’s economic status. This limits the interaction opportunities of students in these types of schools as compared to schools with an integrated environment. This is true as well for schools that cater more to the minority students. However, segregation can also result to positive outcomes most especially for students at a disadvantage. They can now be given a chance, by means of these charter schools, to have opportunities they might not have in traditional, integrated schools.
It can be argued that if the Government, by means of its federal policies, continue on pushing for the widespread expansion of charter schools, it will end up campaigning for school segregation rather than being supportive on an integrated type of schooling. The Government can now contribute to lessening segregation by supporting programs that create diversity in schools and by promulgating the adverse effects of segregation. The Government should also ensure that these charter schools and its programs abide by the Federal Civil Rights Law to prevent segregation in schools.
